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had taken refuge in Holland; and the family he left behind him were in great straits. In this situation our author had no

settled residence.

In 1666 he was obliged to lie concealed for some time, with his mother and elder brother, because some copies of a book, entitled An Apologetical Relation, which the Privy Council had ordered to be publicly burnt, were found in Mrs. Trail's house. At that time the Presbyterians in Scotland were treated with great severity; and the Privy Council, in the execution of cruel laws, that had been enacted by the legis lature at the instigation of the bishops, was continually harrassing them by their tyrannical edicts, enjoining conformity to the established episcopal church, under most unreasonable civil pains and penalties; and enforcing their arbitrary and intolerant decrees by the terror of military quartering and execution. These harsh and unjustifiable methods provoked many of that oppressed and unhappy people, and inflamed their spirits to such a degree, that they took up arms, and advanced as far as Pentland Hills, near Edinburgh; where they were totally defeated and dispersed in an engagement with the King's forces. Our author was suspected of being among those who were in arms; and a proclamation was issued by the Council for apprehending him; which obliged him to retire to Holland, to his father; where he arrived in the year 1667. Here he continued to study divinity; and assisted Nethenus, professor of divinity in the university of Utrecht, in the republication of Rutherford's Examination of Arminianism. In the preface to his edition of that book, Nethenus speaks of Mr. Robert Trail as a very pious, prudent, learned, and industrious young man. Coming over to Britain in 1670, he was ordained to the ministry by some Presbyterian clergymen

in London.

In 1675 we find him again in Scotland, preaching in Cambusnethan, Carluke, Dalserf, Dunfermline, and Culross, and in Edinburgh, particularly in the houses of Ladies Minto and Balgony, and Mr. Scott, of Bristow. His subjects were particularly adapted to the distressed state of the church at that time. Returning to England, he preached in Staplehurst, Seven Oaks, and other places, as he had opportunity.

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Being again, in 1677, in Edinburgh, on a visit to his relations, he preached privately. Here, in the month of July, he was apprehended, and brought before the Privy Council. To them he acknowledged he had kept house-conventicles. Being interrogated if he had preached at field-conventicles, he referred that to proof, and declined to answer, it being criminal by law. Upon which he was ordered by the Council to purge himself by oath of preaching or hearing at them. This he peremptorily refused, as what in justice he could not be

obliged to do in his own case: He owned he had conversed with John Welsh, on the English border. He was on these accounts sent to the prison of the Bass. Here he enjoyed the good company of Messrs. Peden, Fraser, of Brae, and others, confined for their attachment to the testimony of Jesus. From this place he was relieved, by order of government, in the month of October the same year. Afterwards he returned to England, and preached in a meeting-place at Cranbrook, a small town in Kent. From this place he removed to London; where for some time he was pastor to a Scottish congregation in or near London; and after the Revolution, he was chosen assistant to Mr. N. Mather, at Lime Street Meeting, where he continued till that minister's death, in 1697; after this he formed a congregation of his own, of which he was several years pastor. We find him, from his manuscripts, also engaged in preaching on fast-days, with Mess. Brooks and Blaikie, and with Dr. Annesley, and taking his turn at the MorningLecture. He details his experience in the following words :I know no true religion but Christianity; but the doctrine of Christ; of his divine person (the image of the invisible God) of his divine office (the divine Mediator betwixt God and man †) of his divine righteousness (he is the Lord our righteousness; which name is also called upon his church §) - and of his divine Spirit (which all that are his receive ). I know no true ministers of Christ, but such as make it their business, in their calling, to commend Jesus Christ, in his saving fulness of grace and glory, to the love of men; no true Christians, but such as are united to Christ by faith, and abiding in him by faith and love, unto the glorifying of the name of Jesus Christ, in the beauties of gospel-holiness. Ministers and Christians of this spirit have for many years been my brethren and companions; and I hope shall ever be, whithersoever the hand of God shall lead me.'

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In 1691, upon the re-publication of Dr. Crisp's works, a flood of legal and Arminian doctrines seemed to break in among the dissenting ministers and others in London; a sort of medium between Calvinism and Arminianism was proposed; and the doctrines as explained by the reformers, were branded as Antinomianism. In this controversy Dr. Chauncy, Messrs. T. Cole, Nathaniel Mather, M. Mead, T. Cruso, and T. Goodwin, with much ability defended the doctrines of the gospel; among these also Mr. Trail appeared as a well-informed and evangelical divine. In his sermons preached about that time, particularly those on the Lord's Prayer, and on Gal. ii. 21, he clearly and practically illustrates the doctrines of grace; and in a letter to a country minister, since published, he plainly

* Col. i. 15. .
§ Jer. xxxiii. 16.

+ 1 Tim. ii. 5.
Rom. viii. 9.

+ Jer. xxiii. 6.

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delivers his sentiments, and throws much practical light on the controverted subjects. The late celebrated Hervey says of this letter, 'This is a judicious performance: it rightly divides the word of truth, lays the axe, with a masterly hand, between the presumptious legalist and the licentious Antinomian.' The following conference between Mess. Trail and Cole on this subject, deserves to be recorded. Trail visiting Mr. Cole on his death, desired him to deliver his thoughts on the subject of the controversy. He answered With all my heart; I have enough to say of that. One thing I am convinced of, that it is a foolish thing to seek for the justification of a sinner without satisfaction to the justice of God; which nothing can make but the righteousness of Christ imputed to him.' Mr. Trail then asked him if he had no kind of repenting that he had given occasion for the contention there had been about this doctrine. He replied, 'Repenting! No: I repent I have been no more vigorous in defending these truths; in the confidence whereof I die. If I desire to live, it is that I may be more serviceable to Christ in defending his name in the pulpit; but he can defend his truths when his poor creatures are laid in the dust.' Mr. Trail further asked, We desire to know the peace and comfort you have of these truths, as, to your eternal state. He answered, 'They are my only ground of comfort: death would be terrible indeed, if it were not for the comfortable assurance faith gives me of eternal life in Christ; and for the abundant flowing in of that life;-not what I bring to Christ, but derive from him; having received some beginning of it, which I see springing up to eternal life.'

This excellent man died May, 1716, aged 74. During his life-time he published a sermon on the Morning Exercise, on 1 Tim. iv. 16; afterwards 13 sermons on the Throne of Grace, Heb.iy. 16; and 16 sermons on the Lord's Prayer, John xvii. 24. A little after his death was published a volume, entitled Steadfast Adherence to the Profession of our Faith; in 1778 and 1779, was published another volume of sermons, transcribed from Mr.Trail's manuscripts. Eleven of these are from 1 Pet. j.1-4; and six on Gal. ii. 21. He also wrote a short account of the Rev. W. Guthrie, author of a small but excellent tract, the Trial of a saving Interest in Christ; and a Recommendation of Marshal on Sanctification..

As Mr. Trail's writings have been long before the public, having undergone various editions, and have met with the universal approbation of the judicious and serious, it will be unnecessary to say much in their commendation. They breathe that spirit of piety for which the author was so distinguished. The subjects of which they treat are intimately connected with the Christian life here, in prospect of future glory. While they exhibit the supernatural doctrines and privileges of the gos

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pel to faith, they are improved for the excitement of the believers to duty, for their establishment in grace, and abundant comfort in the world. Matter so solid, evangelical, and heavenly, treated in a manner so practical and savoury, is fit for edifying every class of Christians, and cannot fail to be acceptable to all who have a relish for the things of the Spirit of God. Of all the qualities requisite in discourses from the pulpit, or for the use of people at large, plainness of language and perspicuity of manner are amongst the principal and most needful:these characters are apparent in every part of these discourses. Considering the time in which they were composed, they are remarkably free of any thing, either in style or method, that may make them appear intricate, obscure, or offensive to Christian readers, even in this present refined age.

The late R. and E. Erskine speak of Trail in high terms, as a savoury judicious gospel preacher. To these we add the testimony of Hervey and Cecil. In a letter to a friend, who had given him a present of Trail's Works, the former says, The dish you have set before me I find to be savoury meat, the true manna, food for the soul. Your worthy relative was a workman that needed not to be ashamed: he knew how clearly to state, and solidly to establish, the faith of God's elect, and the doctrine according to godliness! Mr. Cecil, in his Remains, addressing a young minister on the doctrines of Calvin, Let him turn to a master on the subject: says, He will find such a man as Trail handling the sovereignty of God, and such high points of doctrine, with a holy and heavenly sweetness; which while it renders it almost impossible not to receive his sentiments, leaves nothing on the mind but a religi"ous savour. Mr. Trail's sermons have been lately reprinted, and the four voumes compressed into two; and, we understand, another volume of Sermons is transcribing from Mr. Trail's manuscripts, and will be published, it due encourage ment is given.

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ON THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF SCRIPTURE,

ARISING FROM THE BRIEF ACCOUNTS WHICH IT SUPPLIES OF THE INFANCY AND YOUTH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

OUR curiosity is naturally directed to the circumstances of Christ's early life; and when corruptions began to prevail in the Christian church, no subject was more productive of forged narrations than this. Mr. J. Jones has inserted several of them at length, in his Method of settling the New Testament Canon, vol. ii. p. 78-226: and a careful comparison of these with the simple and brief statements of Scripture, must result in a rational conviction that the former are spurious, and the latter authentic records.

Of the birth and the childhood of Christ, Mark and John give no information; but their silence is easily accounted for, if we admit that Mark was acquainted with the gospel of Luke, and John with all that the other evangelists had written; and reflect that the evident design of Mark was to abbreviate, and of John to supply what others had omitted. It is likewise obvious, that the subject could not, in its nature, rest on direct apostolic testimony; and was therefore adapted neither to John's investigation nor to that of Mark, who reported chiefly what Peter had testified to the Roman Christians. The sources whence our information of circumstances immediately preceding and following the birth of Christ, is likely to have been derived, have already been noticed; and the principal differences of the records inserted by Matthew and Luke, have, in a general way, been accounted for *. It remains to shew more particularly, but without unnecessary enlargement, that they agree, and mutually confirm and illustrate each other.

Nothing can be more evident, from an attentive perusal of the whole Gospels of Matthew and Luke, than that they wrote entirely independent on each other; yet, if their design had been to confirm each other's testimony, and to supply each other's deficiencies, these purposes could not have been more effectually fulfilled than by the statements which they have inserted concerning the birth of Jesus. It may be added, that, if the Gospels of Mark and John had been previously written, and had become known to Matthew and Luke, they could not more suitably have supplied what was obviously wanting in these histories. The striking accounts which Mark has furnished of the actions of Jesus, and (still more) the sublime declarations of John concerning his existence and divine glory from the beginning, implied that his incarnation must have been supernaturally accomplished, and attended with manifestations of his divine original. Of these facts Matthew and Luke supply the records.

The latter Evangelist, consistently with his profession of tracing our Lord's history to its earliest circumstances, describes the birth of his precursor, John the Baptist, as similar to that of some eminent agents of the Mosaic dispensation. This was reasonably to be expected, concerning one, than whom 'none superior had ever been born of woman; but the extreme conciseness of Matthew's narrative was not adapted to such a detail. His account, on the contrary, begins subsequent to Mary's conception of Jesus; but it presupposes all that Luke has related concerning so wonderful an event; and it supplies what naturally must be supposed to have resulted from those facts which he records.

*See Evan. Mag. for June, p. 207.

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